Unakka Chemmeen Varuthathu or Dry Prawns Fry

"Chorum, rasavum pinne kurachu unakka chemmeen varuthathum ondakil pinne vere onnum venda... :) " meaning if there is rice, rasam and fried dry prawns then there is nothing more to ask for!! This was a very common dialogue at my place. I still remember how my brother and I along with my mother used to wait to have this combination for lunch. (as dry prawns was banned at home by our father) My father, had and i guess still has a strong aversion towards the smell that comes while frying dry prawns. On one hand we used to agree with him that it has a very peculiar smell and the whole neighbourhood would come to know that you are frying dried prawns but on the other hand we used to grieve on it!! So whenever Papa went on for an official tour or so, it would be party time for us. It was a fixed menu and my brother would take his bicycle and rush to that one shop near our home, which used to keep dried prawns in small packets and hang it on a hanger along with various home-made achaar packets.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup - Dry prawns, cleaned (ideal for 2 people)
  
• 1 - Large Onion, chopped
• 2 sprigs of curry leaf
• 1 tbsp - Oil, preferably coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp - Red chilly powder
• salt to taste(if required)
  
  

Method:

• Heat a pan or kadhai. In the meantime, quickly rinse the prawns in water and drain out all the excess water and put it into the hot pan. Saute till all the water has evaporated.
• When the prawns is free of water, add half the quanity of chopped onion and curry leaves.
• Pour the oil and saute it on medium heat till the onions turn light brown. At this stage add the rest of the onion and curry leaf. Add salt if required. As salt is put while drying the prawns, check whether you really need to add salt or not.
• Fry till the prawns and the first set of onions get crispy. The second set of onions would be a little less done but thats what make it special. If the entire quantity of onion is browned there are chances of the dish tasting burnt.
• Add the chilly powder just 1 minute before you turn off the gas. Mix well till the raw smell is gone.
• Serve hot with rice
  

Note:
Have fried dry prawns in limited quanity. If consumed in large quanity it can upset your tummy.

Meen Peera or Fish with grated coconut

The New year has come.. And by today this year is shorter by a month!! And yeah I have been missing from this blog world for over a month!! Lot of my friends(who know me personally) called up, smsed and scrapped me asking whether I am alive or not coz I was not active on my blog!! Now that was so sweet of all of them to have showed that affection towards me and motivated me so much that today I am back to business. May be its the new year hang over or something of that sort, today I am short of words so lets get to the recipe directly.

Meen Peera is a Central Kerala preparation!! Rather, yet another innovative creation using fish. Its a change from the usual fish curry or fry one has on a regular day. Also called peera at times, it can be prepared using small fish like smelt or locally refered as Kozhuva and occasionally using small sardines too!! I have had peera of seer fish (Ney meen) once and have heard people say that even tuna can be used. So basically what I learnt is that there is no hard and fast rule as to which fish to be used for Peera!! Its a very easy recipe - less time, less oil, less spice!!


Ingredients:

• 250 gms - Fish of your choice( i used sardine for this time)
• 2 pieces - Kokum (kudampuli)
• 5-6 - Shallots
  
• 2-3 - Green chillies
• 3/4 cup - Grated coconut
• 1/2 '' piece - Ginger
• 1 tsbp - Coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 2 - Shallots, sliced
• 1 sprig of curry leaf
  
• Salt to taste
• Water to cook
  
  

Method:

• In a mixer, make a coarse paste of coconut, chillies, ginger and shallots and keep aside.
• In a meen chatti( traditional earthen pot), put the cleaned and washed fish, turmeric powder, salt, kokum and little water and mix well and put the pot on the flame with a lid on. Cook till the fish is done. As I had medium sized sardines I had cut the fish into 2-3 pieces thus while stirring it, the fish broke into pieces. So very carefully stir it.
• Once the water evaporates, add the ground coconut paste into the fish and cook for 2 more minutes and turn off the gas.
  
• Take another pan and heat coconut oil and splutter mustard seeds and saute in the shallots and curry leaves and pour it onto the dish and mix again.
  
• Serve immediately with rice
  

Kurumulaku ittu Mathi Varuthathu or Sardines Fried with ground pepper

ohile browsing through some of my old pictures on my system, I became all nostalgic about home, Cochin and above all, Kerala!! Suddenly my thoughts ran up to those narrow lanes of Fortkochi, Jew Street and Broadway which was infused with the distinct smell of spices. Cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, mace - you could smell it all there. The Broadway(on the contrary, not at all a broad street) was one of the streets I had to pass by every evening after work to get to the nearest bus stop. The smell of the spices enthused me even at that hour of the day. And ever since I remember the place, it always smelled and looked the same sans a few new shops.

Staying in this city rich for its spice trade, every family who has some land around their houses or in their backyard would make sure that they plant few essential spices. We too have some pepper vines climbing onto couple of adakkamaram(Arecanut trees), a nice and shady nutmeg tree, an all spices tree and a cinnamon tree in and around our house. Thanks to my father who planted all those trees that I could grow up seeing all of those spices. And no matter how far away from home I am, I would definetly carry a nice jar full of home grown black peppercorns for sure.


This fish fry is something which is very special to me because I crafted out of my own imagination using our own peppercorns and my hubby just loves it. We could have it everyday and still want for more. The taste obviuosly comes out of the pepper which is the main ingredient.

Ingredients:

• 5-6 Nos - Sardines
• Coconut Oil or refined oil, to shallow fry
• 1 tsp and more - whole balck peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 2-3 - Shallots
• 1 tsp - Ginger Garlic paste
• 2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method:

• Clean and cut the fish and score them and keep aside
• Roughly grind all the ingredients and apply on to the fish. Apply it thoroughly on to the fish and smear the masala on the cuts. Let it remain for minimum half an hour
• Heat a pan and pour some oil according to your wish. I use coconut oil most often, which increases the flavor. When the oil is hot, place the marinated fish and let it fry for sometime on both the sides over a medium low flame. As the masala paste is coarse there are chances of it getting browned faster and might sometimes burn also. So make sure the masala is just browned and not burnt(like what happened to couple of my fishes). This preparation is at its best when the fish is not too crisp.
• Serve hot and sizzling with rice.

Note: If you can manage to get fresh green peppercorns, you can replace the black ones with them, which would taste even better.

Njandu Varutharachathu or Kerala Style Crab curry - Obviuosly with oodles of coconut oil and coconut

Whenever I eat crab, I just get reminded of one thing which my mom always says. "Njandu curry ondankil, randu curry venda!!"(means if there is crab curry, you neednot have another curry). And I often I related that statement of my mother as her laziness to cook more dishes the day crab was cooked.

As a kid, I never adored it as it was so difficult to eat them. The art of eating crab is something that one learns through years of practice. The day I learnt to eat them, I started enjoying it. To be frank, it is so difficult to eat crab minding your table manners. The day this thought struck my mind, things bacame easier!! And from then on I made it a point not to eat crab at a restuarants(unless and until its some preparation using the crab meat and doesn't involve the shell)!! Not having tasted many preparations with crab, I always tend to love the good old Kerala preparation, which my mother, aunts, mother in law and hubby makes!! This version comes from my hubby who is an expert in making sea food!!

Ingredients:

To cook:

• 1/2 Kg - Crab, cleaned and cut
• 1" piece - Ginger
• 1 sprig of curry leaf
• 1 tsp - Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 - Raw banana or 1 potato, cubed (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Water to cook

To roast and grind:

• A ittle more than 1/2 cup of lightly packed finely grated fresh Coconut
• 4 - cloves
• 1" piece - Cinnamon
• 1 small pod of cardamom
• 1 tsp - Black peppercorns
• 2 cloves - Garlic
• 2 tsp - Coriander powder
• 2 tsp - Chilly powder
• A generous pinch - Fennel seeds or perinjeerakam
• 1 tsp - Coconut Oil

For Tempering:(Optional)

• 1 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 2-3 - Shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 sprig - Curry leaf
• 1 tbsp - Coconut Oil

Method:

• Clean the crab and cut the major part into two. The legs need to be crushed a bit. You can ideally just give a light crush with a pestle until you see cracks on the shell. This is done so that the spices and salt gets into the juicy flesh.
• Now, in a pan, put all the ingredients in the 'To cook' section and pour required water and bring it to a boil and simmer and cook till the crab turns orange in color. If excessive water, turn the flame to medium high and evaporate it till the level you desire. We like a little thick gravy thus not much of water was retained.
• Meanwhile, in a pan, pour the coconut oil and roast all the ingredients leaving the chilly and coriander powder. When the coconut turns nice and brown, add the coriander and chilly powder and stir continuously till the raw smell is gone. Make sure the mixture doesnt get burnt, for which you need to keep the flame medium low and keep stirring continously. Let it cool and grind it with very little water to a fine paste. The finer the paste, the better the curry's texture gets
• Once done empty the masala paste into the cooked crab and mix well. If water is required add water according to your wish. Let the crab simmer in this masala for 10 minutes till all the aroma gets into the crab.
• In a pan, pour 1 tbsp of oil and put in the mustard, shallots and curry leaf and pour on top of the curry. Close the lid and let it stand for 10 minutes and serve with Rice. Tempering is not a must do. I generally skip it as I cannot simply wait to have it. And yet another reason being less oil too

Fish Curry

I have tried cooking almost all things which I love to eat but never tried my hands on cooking fish curry in the Kerala style. You call it luxury or luck, but my hubby is a great cook and its only him who cooks fish curry at our home. If we ever bought fish, it means its time for him to hit the kitchen. And this routine has been happening ever since our marriage, probably because of couple of reasons. One of which is, he loves cooking. Second because he never adored my family's preparation of fish except for the Karimeen Pollichathu and fish fries. And of late I have been craving to eat my mom's fish curry, which is a Tengaaracha meen curry(Fish curry made in ground coconut). Thats when, as usual, I picked up the phone and rang up my mummy to check out how to make Tengaaracha meen curry. She was surprised when I asked her this recipe because she knew that her son-in-law only likes his amma's meen curry, which is way too different from any fish curry we have ever had in our lifes. But then I had made up my mind too strong to break this ice and make him like our fish curry too.

Last night when he returned from work I was gleaming with smile and unable to control my eagerness to know how he reacts when he sees the curry . As usual he entered the kitchen and started lifting the lids of the dishes to find out whats cooking? And boy you should have seen the smile on his face!! And finally the magic worked... It was a recipe from my mothers kitchen but prepared according to his likes i.e with lots of red chilly and prepared in pure coconut oil. Ingredients:

• 4-5 medium sized pieces - Fish
• 2 Tbsp - Coconut Oil
• 1 pinch - Fenugreek seeds/Uluva
• 2-3 Shallots, sliced
• 1 small piece - Ginger
• 2 cloves - Garlic
• 1 sprig - Curry leaf
• 1 piece - Kokum/Kudumpulli, washed
• Salt to taste
• Water

For paste

• 1 handful of - Grated Coconut
• 1 tbsp - Coriander powder
• 1 tbsp - Red chilly powder
• 1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

For seasoning

• 1 Tbsp - Coconut Oil
• 2 pinch - Mustard seeds
• 1 sprig - Curry leaf
• 1-2 Shallots, sliced

Method:

• Prepare a very fine paste of coconut, coriander powder, chilly powder and turmeric.
• Heat a meen chatti(traditional utensil made of clay used for preparing fish) and pour the oil. When hot put the fenugreek seeds and let it splutter. Add the shallots, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and saute for 2 minutes or till transparent.
• Now add the coconut paste and saute well till oil separates. This will take 4-5 minutes
• Add required water, salt, kokum and fish pieces and cover it for cooking. Thicken the gravy according to your wish and turn off the gas
• Heat a small kadhai with oil and splutter tne mustard and saute in the shallots and curry leaves and pour on top of the fish curry(do not stir) and cover it with lid till you serve.
• Serve with rice or kappa(tapioca)

Chemeen Chamanthi or Prawns Chutney

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well"

Thats such a beautiful statement written by Virgina Woolf and its just so perfect for me. The best meal I had in this season was the dinner on the last day of our trip to Kerala in September. It was the simplest meals yet the best ever one can have. I at times think how lucky am I to get married to a family who loves food and loves to cook and eat, the same way I do!! I should also confess at this point of time that the love for food and urge to learn new things was a result of my marriage and introduction of me to this new family of mine!!

Ingredients:

• 1 handful of Prawns, cleaned and deveined
• ¼th of a Coconut, cut as chunks not grated
• 1-2 - Kanthari mulakku or Green Chilly
• 1 tsp – Chathacha mulakku (Red Chilly flakes)
• 1 sprig Curry leaf
• 1-2 – Shallots
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp – Coconut Oil

Method:

• Cook the prawns for exactly 2 minutes in water and salt.
• Coarsely grind the all the ingredients together without adding water.
• Mix the coconut oil and serve immediately with Kanji or Kerala rice!! Worlds best and simplest meal!!

**Note: The meaurements of the prawns and coconut is not very precise as it depends upon an apporximation and also the size of the coconut and prawns. Please adjust the measurement of both according to the your taste. In our family, we prefer to have the flavor of prawns to stand out and mostly all who love prawns would like it that way.

Prawn Pulao

Ingredients:

• 1 cup - Basmati Rice
• 2 cup - Water
• 1/4 cup - Prawns, cleaned and deveined
• 3 - Cloves
• 1" long - Cinnamon stick
• 2 - Cardamom
• 1 Large - Onion, sliced
• 1 tsp each - Ginger and Garlic paste
• 1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp - Chilly powder
• 1/2 tsp - Garam masala powder (Optional)
• 1 - Tomato, chopped
• 1 tbsp - Coriander leaves, chopped
• 2 Tbsp - Oil or ghee
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Cook the basmati rice in 2 cups of water. Strain and cool the rice and keep it aside
• Heat some oil in a kadhai and when its hot, put the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom and let it splutter
• Add the onions and saute till golden brown. Add the ginger and garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes
• Add the chilly and turmeric powder and saute.
• Now add the tomatoes and saute till mashed. Now add the garam masala and saute.
• Now add the prawns and pour some water and cook covered for just 2 minutes. Fry this masala well and add the rice and saute till the rice is coated well with the masala.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with raita.

Fish Molee or a Fish in mild coconut milk gravy

Another delicacy from Gods own country!! Last week when i made this recipe I was wondering how this name originated.. Probably, ages ago, it was some Molly chechi in Malabar Kerala who first made this recipe and named it fish molee (Some people even refer it as moilee as well). Thats when I realised that Molly chechi would not be the reason for this dish. :)

Trying to research on the origin of Fish Molee I came across people(elderly people) who said that it probably might have originated centuries ago when the French, Spanish and Portuguese people sailed to the coastal belt of Kerala. In the barter system, they took all our spices to their country and in return left one of their delicacies. I had also read somewhere that mole in spanish actually means stew. So guess there ended the hunt for the origin.. And as the famous Malayalam saying goes, "Kuzhi ennanda, appam thinna porey?"

What makes this dish special?? Firstly the freshness of the fish. Molee/stew has a very mild flavor thus if you use a bad fish, the mild gravy would not be able to cover it up. You can use any fish like prompret, seer fish or pearlspot to make molee. Secondly, the fresh coconut milk. Coconut is one thing which is in abundance in Kerala. But getting the milk would be the most tough part in this recipe. If that part is resolved rest everything is done. I use only freshly grated coconuts milk. Do not prefer canned or milk powder. And finally the way it is prepared. The fish is marinated and slightly fried before stewing it. Frying the fish has two advantages. Handling it becomes easier and it makes the dish different.
Now, lets plunge into the recipe!!

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized - Karimeen or pearlspot, cleaned and scored
• 1 tsp - Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 Tbsp - Coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp - msutard seeds
• 1 large - Onion, thinly sliced
• 1" piece - Ginger, julienned
• 2 large - Garlic cloves, julienned
• 2-3 - Green chillies, slit
• 2 sprigs - Curry leaves
• 1 tsp - Pepper powder
• 1 - Tomato, sliced
• 1/2 cup - Thick coconut milk (Onnampaal)
• 1/2 cup - Slightly thin milk (Randampaal)
• 1 cup - Very Thin milk (Moonampaal)
• Lime juice / Vinegar(chorka) to taste
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Smear the fish with turmeric and salt and keep it aside for 15 minutes.
• Slightly fry the fish in a flat pan.
• Heat a meen chatty(earthen pot used for cooking fish) and pour the coconut oil. Crackle the mustard seeds.
• Add the ginger and garlic and saute for half a minute.
• Add the Onion, curry leaves, green chillies and saute till it becomes transparent. Add the tomatoes and saute for a minute more. Donot mash the tomatoes. Add the pepper powder.
• Simmer the heat and add the thinnest coconut milk/Moonampaal and place the fish carefully. Season with salt and cover the pot and cook the fish. As the fish is half done while frying you just need to cook for another 2 minutes.
• Now pour the 2nd milk / Randampaal and stir slowly. Let it cook slowly for sometime till the fish completly absorbs it.
• Now remove the pot from the fire and pour the thick milk/Onnampaal. Place it on low fire again for a minute and lift the pot and gently shake so that it gets mixed . Do not stir as the fish might break.
• Take it off the stove and add some lime juice or Chorka(it is a vinegar made out of toddy - again a by product of coconut). Top it up with some coconut oil in the end.
• Serve with appam, pathiri, idiappam or even boiled rice.

This recipe is participating in the curry mela held by Cook4allseasons by Srivalli http://cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com/2008/07/announcing-curry-mela-event-to.html

Karimeen Varuthathu or Fried Pearlspot

This weekend was a very very happy weekend because this is was the first time we got naadan fish, karimeen(pearl spot) here. Otherwise we always get the local fish, which i do not adore much. I always use to browse through the other blogs which wrote about karimeen, aila and mathi and used to feel jealous that why in the whole world am I not able to eat those fishes!!
Karimeen is one of my fav fishes.. Nothing can beat it for its earthy flavor, for the very Kerala flavor. And the taste of our very own fresh ginger, green peppercorns and coconut oil makes it just perfect!! There was a time when I used to hate the smell of coconut oil. I could not stand the taste of it. But as I grew up I started enjoying its flavor. Now most of my naadan cooking is next to impossible without coconut oil.
Ingredients:

• 3 Medium sized - Pearl spot / Karimeen
• Coconut Oil to fry

For the marinade:

• 1 - medium sized Onion
• 2 sprigs - Curry leaves
• 1" piece - Ginger
• 2 tsp - Green / Black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp - Red Chilly powder
• 1 tsp - Turmeric powder
• salt to taste

Method:

• Roughly grind all the ingredient to make a paste. Need not be a smooth paste.
• Clean and score the fish and smear the masala on to the fish and refrigerate for atleast an hour
• Heat a pan with coconut oil in it and fry the fish till both the sides are golden brown in color. Because the masala is a little coarse there are all chances that the masala can get burnt. But you can avoid that if you fry the fish on low flame and carefully wait and watch!!
• Serve hot. I feel it can be a full meal on its own for me.. I do not need anything to ruin the divinely flavour :)

Hot and spicy Prawn Roast

Prawns!! and the only word that I can recollect is "YUMMY"!! Its one non veg which needs only 2 minutes of cooking.. And you can find prawns in various sizes and colors. I somehow always enjoy eating the tiny ones. Ya, tiger prawns are good if they are barbecued!!
This recipe comes right from Kerala but its my mothers way!! I have had variations of Prawn Roast or chemmeen ularthiyathu but I always loved my mummas prawns roast!!
Ingredients:

• 250 gms - Prawns, cleaned and de-vained
• 1 tbsp each - Ginger and Garlic, roughly pounded
• 1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 1 - Large Onion, Chopped
• 2 - sprigs of Curry leaf
• 1 - Green chilly, slit
• 1 - Tomato, Chopped
• 1 tsbp - Red chilly powder
• 1 tsp - Pepper Powder
• 2 tsp - Garam masala powder
• 2 tbsp - Coconut Oil or Refined oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

• In a pan, put the cleaned prawns, ginger, garlic, turmeric powder and salt. Add some water and cover and cook for 2 minutes. If the water is not completely evaporated but the prawns is cooked, let the water vaporise.
• Add some coconut oil(and if you do not like the taste of coconut oil use refined oil) and add the onions, slit green chilly and 1 sprig of curry leaf and saute till the onions turns golden brown
• Add the tomato and saute well for another 2 minutes.
• Add all the dry masalas and saute till the masala gets coated onto the prawns.
• Garnish with the sprig of curry leaf and ginger juliennes and serve with Kerala Boiled rice and mooru curry

Crispy Fish and Raw Mango Salad

Saw this on television and was so inspired to try it out, that even with lot of ingredients missing it tasted just superb. So improvised it according to our taste and availability of material and here it is!! Originally this is a Thai dish and they use Catfish, a special variety of red chilly and add fish sauce too. I use any fish which doesnt have too many bones(Prefer Kingfish).
Ingredients:

• 1 & 1/2 cup - Fish
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp - Pepper powder
• 1⁄3 cup - Vegetable oil
• 2-3 Nos - Green chillies
• 2-3 Nos - Shallots
• 1/2" long - Ginger
• 1⁄3 cup raw mango, peeled and grated
• 1/2 tsp - Soya sauce
• 1 tsp - lime juice
• 1 Tsp - Sugar

Method:

• Cut the fish into small cubes and mix salt and pepper well and keep it aside for some time.
• Heat some oil in a pan and fry this fish piece till they turn golden brown. Make sure you doit on low fire. Drain it on to a paper towel.
• Mince the green chillies, shallots and ginger . Mix all the ingredients with the fried fish, and grated mango.
• Mix in the lime juice, soya suace and sugar. Add salt if required.